


Joey

by Poekiepoes



Series: Fluffy One-shots (Warriors) [2]
Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Cute Ending, Cutesy, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Happy, Humor, M/M, Pre-Book Series: The Prophecies Begin, The Prophecies Begin: Book 1: Into the Wild
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:14:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23461591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poekiepoes/pseuds/Poekiepoes
Summary: A kittypet meets a ThunderClan apprentice and while they learn that they live in completely different worlds, they might not be so different.
Relationships: Firestar/Graystripe (Warriors)
Series: Fluffy One-shots (Warriors) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1667827
Comments: 2
Kudos: 38





	Joey

**Author's Note:**

  * For [furk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/furk/gifts).



> Jeez this took so long! I hope you like it! Joey comes from something one of the Erins said once: If Graystripe had been a human she would have called him Joey.  
> Today I went outside (yes, we can still do that in my country) to deliver flyers and I had to dodge all the construction workers and holes in the street, I felt like I was in a videogame! Is everyone doing okay during quarantine?  
> Enjoy!

Rusty had been bored all day, he just layed on the couch for hours staring at the ceiling, there was nothing interesting about it, but he was too energetic to go to sleep again. He stood up, he needed some movement. Rusty sat in front of the window and looked at the garden, it was a beautiful garden, with a huge patch of grass to play on and several kinds of colorful flowers. There were some very good smelling plants too, Rusty's humans called it “catnip", Rusty tried eating them once, after all, something that smelled so good had to taste good too, right? The humans had scolded Rusty for eating them, for ruining their garden, Rusty didn't eat them again, instead, he sat beside them and enjoyed their smell. Rusty didn't have a lot of friends, only his neighbor, Smudge, a black and white tom the same age as Rusty. Rusty also had a sister, Princess, but she lived somewhere else because they were adopted by different humans. 

Rusty went outside to check if Smudge was there. Turns out he wasn't. Rusty jumped on the fence to look at the forest that was only meters away from him. There were stories about those woods. An old cat once told Rusty it was haunted, but some cats claimed they had seen wild cats that lived there. To be honest, Rusty was pretty jealous of the wild cats, they could go wherever they wanted and eat whatever they wanted. It seemed nice to live there. But the stories described the cats as wild beasts that were twice as big as a housecat, with claws sharp enough to cut through stone and could eat a rabbit in one bite, including its bones, they had no remorse, and everyone who would run into one would not come out alive, running away was no option either, these cats knew the woods better than anyone and were faster than a car, hiding was useless, they could smell a cat from hundreds of meters away. A cat that lived close to Rusty and Smudge had once told the two young cats about the one time he went into the forest, he had caught a robin there before he came across a wild cat, he described the beast the same as in the stories, it was pure luck that he made it out alive. He never went into the forest again. Rusty just kept looking at the forest, maybe one day he'll be big and strong enough to go into the woods… 

A few days later, he sat on the wooden fence again, looking at the gigantic trees that made the forest. This time, a bush slightly twitched. There was something behind it. Out of the bush came a small, fluffy gray cat. Rusty wondered if he was the cat of the humans that moved into the house that had been empty until yesterday in the neighborhood. Because the cat was small, Rusty assumed they were young, like him. The cat had a long, thick, gray fur with a single stripe on their back, they were observing Smudge’s house and hadn’t seen Rusty yet. So the young housecat called out to the cat. 

Graypaw had wandered away from his mentor, Lionheart, to observe Twolegplace. He hadn’t seen it before and really wanted to. He was on a hunting patrol, his first one, after he had been made an apprentice the day before. Lionheart was a good mentor, he was proud, brave and kind, everything a real warrior had to be. Graypaw had heard stories from the elders about Twolegplace and the cats that lived there, they were fat, lazy, lay all day and night and were completely depending on their twolegs. They were no threat to a real Clan cat. So that’s how Graypaw ended up in front of the fence (Lionheart had told him they were called that) that protected the twoleg dens from intruders. He looked at one of the stone dens, it was huge in comparison to the Apprentice Den where Graypaw slept. Suddenly he heard a young male voice call out, Graypaw looked in the direction where the sound came from and saw a small kittypet with a flame-colored pelt. Graypaw froze for a second. He could see it was a kittypet because of his collar, every kittypet wore one of those. Graypaw ran off.  
‘He must be shy’, Rusty thought to himself, ‘He’ll come back.’

Rusty saw the cat again a few days later, he was sitting on the fence, looking at the forest again. Rusty’s father had once told his son he went into the woods with a wild cat, but Rusty couldn’t remember much of the story, he was too young. Rusty went outside to avoid his humans, he overheard them saying they were going to the vet one of these days, and Rusty didn’t fancy going there again. He saw the gray cat again, this time behind a bush underneath a tree, Rusty didn’t call out this time fearing he would scare the cat away again, so he jumped down the fence, landing in the long grass and sneaked towards him. The gray cat, however, heard him and ran off again. ‘How did he hear me?’ Rusty asked himself. ‘I was being super quiet!’ 

Rusty was sick of calling the cat “the cat" in his head, so he decided to give him a name. It had to be a nice name, a cute name, and it had to fit him. Fluffy? No, not cool enough. Gray? No, too normal. After thinking for a few minutes, Rusty came up with the perfect name: Joey. It was cute and cool at the same time and fit the fluffy gray cat. He would call Joey by his real name once he knew it. 

Graypaw had to go on a hunting patrol again, close to Twolegplace. He had told Lionheart about the flame-colored kittypet he saw there, and his mentor had forbidden him from talking to any kittypet he saw. Graypaw was disappointed, secretly. So here they were. Graypaw had gone solo again, he hunted better that way. Graypaw was very close to the same den of Twolegplace. He heard someone call out, it was that same kittypet again, but this time he called another kittypet named Joey. Kittypets and their weird names. Then, he realized the kittypet was talking to him, they were the only two cats close by. He ran again, but this time, the kittypet ran after him, into the woods. Graypaw ran for a while until he realized what kind of coward he was, so he turned around to defend his territory, the kittypet was surprised, and looked scared.  
“No, wait! I don’t want to hurt you! You don’t have to fight me!” Graypaw hissed back, “Yes, I do, kittypet. You crossed the border and I must defend my territory from intruders!” The kittypet wasn’t scared anymore, just surprised, he cocked his head to the side. ‘’Kittypet?’’ Graypaw facepalmed himself in his head, of course, kittypets used different words, they didn’t understand being a Clan cat either. Graypaw grew less hostile, but still ready to attack the other cat if he attempted something,‘’A kittypet is a cat that lives with twolegs.’’ ‘’Twolegs? You mean humans?’’ Graypaw rolled his eyes in annoyance, ‘’Probably.’’ What kind of stupid word is ‘human’ anyway? ‘’Now get off my territory!’’ Snarled Graypaw, the kittypet was still not impressed, instead sitting down and continuing asking questions, ‘’Are you a wild cat?’’ Graypaw sighed, seeing no danger in answering, ‘’You mean a Clan cat? Yes.’’ The kittypet looked impressed now, he must never have seen a forest cat before. ‘’Really? You don’t look like one.’’ Graypaw scoffed, ‘’What would you know, kittypet?’’ ‘’Would you stop calling me that? My name is Rusty!’’ The flame-colored kittypet, Rusty, said angrily. ‘’Sure, Rusty.’’ Graypaw said, still annoyed. ‘’What kind of name is ‘Rusty’? It’s weird!’’ ‘’It’s quite normal, what is your name then?’’ Answered Rusty challenging. Graypaw puffed out his fluffy chest and spoke proudly, ‘’Graypaw. I am ThunderClan apprentice and my mentor is one of ThunderClan’s most respected warriors!’’ Rusty looked at him curiously, ‘’ThunderClan? You live in groups?’’ ‘’A Clan is different than a group, not that a kittypet would get that.’’ Rusty looked offended, ‘’My. Name. Is. Rusty.’’ Graypaw scoffed again, ‘’I know, but you are a kittypet.’’ ‘’I’ll show you what I can do!’’ Right after, Rusty jumped at Graypaw with a bad technique, but he was quick. He held Graypaw to the ground. Graypaw used a move Lionheart recently taught him to push the kittypet’s hind legs from below him, causing Rusty to roll over, off Graypaw. The ThunderClan cat used his gained time to attack. He unsheated his claws and slashed Rusty’s paw, hoping it would be enough to scare the kittypet away. Rusty didn’t give up, though.

This is not how Rusty expected his day would go. He was expecting to see Graypaw, or as Rusty had been calling him, Joey, again, but not to fight with him. Rusty didn’t want to fight the longhaired gray cat, but here they were. Rusty had attacked first to defend his honor, but Graypaw seemed to have been trained, he was good for a cat his age, but Rusty was no coward. He fell to the ground after a defending move from Graypaw, but stood up quickly. Not quickly enough, as Graypaw had already clawed his paw, the wounds were not deep enough to bleed, but it hurt nonetheless, Rusty flinched, but regained his strength and attacked the forest cat again, this time from the side, to surprise him.

And surprised was he. Graypaw did not see it coming, most kittypets ran away as soon as he hissed at them and told them he was a Clan cat, but this one was different, he was braver, and stronger, and smart enough to diversify his attacks.

The battle was soon over as Rusty claimed victory. He stepped away but still stood over Graypaw menacingly. ‘’So will you stop calling me ‘kittypet’?’’ Graypaw laughed, ‘’That’s what this was about? Me calling you what you are?’’ Rusty stepped closer again, ‘’I need to defend my honor. If I don’t, then what am I worth?’’ Graypaw stopped laughing for a second, but quickly lost seriousness again, ‘’Well… You have defended your honor like you wanted. Will you get off my territory now?’’ He asked chuckling. Rusty’s frown turned into a smile, ‘’Sure, big scary Clan cat!’’ He turned away, remembering where his house was and jumped onto the fence, looking back once more before entering his house to eat.

Rusty had told all the cats of the neighborhood about his encounter and battle with the wild cat, but no one believed him, even less when he had told them he won the battle. The battle hadn’t left any marks, so he had no proof either.

Graypaw had told not a single cat of the Clan about his encounter and battle with the kittypet, fearing Dustpaw and Sandpaw would tease him, and Lionheart would scold him. The battle hadn’t left any marks, so no one would suspect anyhing either.  
Graypaw found out he respected Rusty. The kittypet had fought better than any of the other apprentices, they had only been apprentices for a few days and had only had a few battle training sessions, but still, it was impressive the flame-colored cat won the fight.

The two young cats ran into each other again a few days later. Graypaw was on another patrol, ‘seriously? Couldn’t Lionheart think of something better for him to do?’ He wasn’t even close to Twolegplace this time, but somehow he ran into Rusty again. Literally. The flame-colored kittypet jumped from behind a bush and slammed into the ThunderClan apprentice by accident. ‘’What are you doing?!’’ asked Graypaw with a loud voice. Rusty smiled a goofy smile and apologized. Graypaw sighed and rolled his eyes, ‘’We’re not even close to Twolegplace! What are you doing in ThunderClan territory?’’ This time, his voice was a little softer, just a little though. ‘’Sorry.’’ Rusty finally stood up, ‘’I was sitting on the fence and I thought I saw you, so I went into the forest, but it turned out to be a mouse. I thought it was a good idea to try to catch it, but then I heard something and I thought it was something dangerous so I started running.’’ Graypaw only heard half of the story Rusty was telling him because he got distracted by the cat’s eyes, the color was nothing he had ever seen, the green wasn’t dark, but not super-bright either, just in between. The emerald orbs complemented the cat’s orange tabby fur, making it look like fire. ‘’Hello? You listening?’’ Graypaw was snapped out of his thoughts by Rusty’s voice, he saw the emerald-eyed cat look into his own eyes. ‘’Yes, yes, fence, me but not me, mouse, I got it.’’ Graypaw came to a realization, ‘’You were hunting on our territory!’’ ‘’Well.. tried to..’’’Rusty defended himself. ‘’I’ll go back now…’’ He turned around to go back to his yard. ‘’Wait! You can stay, I mean, for a little while, my mentor isn’t close by, so no one’s gonna kill you..’’ ‘’That’s reassuring.’’ Rusty answered jokingly, turning back to Graypaw and sitting down in front of the gray cat. Graypaw was the next to talk, ‘’It may not look like it, but I don’t have many friends…’’ Rusty laughted, ‘’Wow, shocker.’’ Graypaw looked offended, ‘’What’s that supposed to mean, kittypet?’’ he snapped back, Rusty didn’t stop smiling, ‘’Nothing… you were telling me about your few friends?’’ ‘’Actually… It’s just one, his name is Ravenpaw, he is nice but very shy. There are two other apprentices, Dustpaw and Sandpaw, but they are bullies.’’  
‘’Wow, is everyone in a Clan a paw?’’ Graypaw laughed, ‘’No, just the apprentices, they are older than 6 moons and are given a mentor by Bluestar to train to become warriors’’  
‘’Bluestar?’’  
‘’That’s our leader, I don’t know her very well, because no one is allowed in her den except the deputy, Redtail, and the medicine cat, Spottedleaf. She is a good leader, I guess.  
Being the leader is really cool, though, you get nine lives and are the boss of everyone in the Clan! Medicine cats are pretty boring, considering they do nothing but sort plants all day. The deputy is the boss of all warriors and gets to decide who goes on patrols, when I am deputy, I’m gonna make Sandpaw and Dustpaw patrol all day so I don’t have to see their faces!’’ Both cats laughed.  
‘’That sounds nice… Now let me tell you about the city, or as you call it: Twolegplace! A little warning: it’s not as cool as a Clan!’’

Over the course of days, Rusty learned more about the Clans (‘’There’s more than one?!”), and Graypaw learned everything about a kittypet’s life, hating it even more now. Rusty knew almost everyone of the Clan without ever meeting them and loved listening to Graypaw’s complains about the cats. He even learned some very handy hunting and battle skills.  
‘’I want to live in your Clan.’’  
‘’What?’’  
‘’You heard me.’’  
‘’You can’t, you aren’t Clan born!’’  
‘’I don’t care, I can fight too!’’  
‘’Not as well as a warrior.’’  
‘’Can you?’’  
‘’Good point.’’  
‘’’Then why can’t I join?’’  
‘’I told you, you’re a kittypet.’’  
‘’What’s the difference? I know the Warrior Code now, I will always follow it, please give me a chance!’’

So Graypaw went to his mentor Lionheart, and after a lot of negotiating, the warrior went to Bluestar with his apprentice.  
‘’Bluestar, please hear him out.’’  
‘’You’re talking about a kittypet, Lionheart. A kittypet!’’  
‘’Yes, Bluestar, but from what I’ve heard, this cat is very talented.’’  
‘’I see your point, but the Clan will never accept an outsider, even if I wanted to let him in.’’  
‘’But Bluestar, very few kits were born because of the harsh Leaf-bare and we haven’t got many apprentices either, if RiverClan or ShadowClan attacked us, we would not recover, an extra apprentice can’t hurt, right? Give this cat a chance, if he isn’t worthy, you can always send him away.’’  
Bluestar sighed, ‘’Fine. We will give him one chance to prove himself. Graypaw, show us where this cat lives.’’

Rusty was surprised to not only see Graypaw, but also a longhaired golden tabby tom (Lionheart?) and a blue-gray she-cat (Bluestar?) standing beside him. He walked up to them, ‘’Hello?’’ The she-cat smiled politely, ‘’Greetings, you must be Rusty.’’ Rusty nodded, ‘’Yes ma’am.’’ She continued, ‘’My name is Bluestar, I am ThunderClan’s leader, and this is Lionheart,’’ She pointed to the golden tabby with her tail, ‘’One of our warriors and Graypaw’s mentor.’’  
‘’I thought so, Bluestar, Graypaw has told me a lot about you and your Clan.’’  
‘’I heard from Graypaw that you have shown interest in joining ThunderClan.’’  
‘’Yes, I would love to join, if you gave me a chance?’’  
‘’One. I would like to see what you can do, after all, you are a kittypet.’’  
Rusty nodded

A few days later, Rusty was no longer a kittypet, but a ThunderClan apprentice with the name Firepaw. He had shown Bluestar everything he knew and everything he had learned from Graypaw. Bluestar was going to announce it, but a warrior with the name Longtail had questioned Bluestar’s decicion and challenged Firepaw, when he was still Rusty, to a fight. Firepaw won and had proven himself worthy of joining the Clan. Not everyone approved, and cats still hesitated calling out his name on the ceremony, but Graypaw screamed Firepaw’s name full of pride, and after a few seconds, the whole Clan joined in.

Turns out, Graypaw was right about Dustpaw and Sandpaw, they were jerks, or in Clan-vocabulary, mouse-brains. Ravenpaw was nice, but Graypaw was still Firepaw’s favorite Clan cat. Firepaw had not been assigned a specific mentor yet, being currently trained by Tigerclaw and Lionheart, Graypaw and Ravenpaw’s mentors. Tigerclaw was a good fighter, but he was very strict and not very nice to his apprentices, Lionheart was Firepaw’s favorite. Bluestar seemed to like the new apprentice, he even got to go to the Gathering that was once a moon, where all Clans gathered at a place named Fourtrees, for obvious reasons, to share news and discuss things. 

‘’Hey! You awake?’’  
Firepaw opened his eyes to look where the voice came from, Graypaw, of course.  
‘’I am now.’’  
He stretched and got comfortable in his nest, ready to chat. It was almost moonhigh and everyone in the Camp was already asleep, including the other apprentices.  
‘’Good.’’  
‘’Not gonna apologize?’’  
‘’Why would I? A couple of hours sleep, a few minutes sleep, no matter how much sleep you get you still feel tired after training.’’  
‘’Sometimes even before.’’  
Graypaw chuckled, ‘’Yeah, you’re right.’’  
‘’So why did you wake me?’’  
‘’I couldn’t sleep, just wanted to chat.’’  
‘’In the middle of the night?’’  
‘’Yeah, why not? It’s not like others are listening.’’  
‘’I was sleeping, Graypaw.’’  
‘’You sound like Tigerclaw.’’  
‘’No I don’t! He would say it much more intimidating, like,’’ Firepaw took a deep breath and came to a sitting position, inpersonating Tigerclaw, ‘’I was sleeping, Graypaw.’’ He had lowered his voice and brought one of his front paws up to his chest to look proud, but wasn’t able to hold back laughter any longer than a few seconds. Graypaw joined in.  
‘’Hmm… No, still no difference.’’ He said.  
‘’No need to become sassy.’’  
‘’Indeed no need, I just want to.’’ Graypaw said challenging.  
‘’So is that the thing you wanted to talk about? The reason you woke me up?’’  
‘’Now you sound like an elder.’’  
‘’Do not!’’  
‘’Do too!’’  
‘’Do not!’’  
‘’Do too!’’  
‘’D- no, you know what? I am not playing this game anymore, I am going to sleep.’’ Firepaw curled up in his moss bed and closed his eyes.  
‘’Do too!’’ Said Graypaw again. Firepaw held back a chuckle.  
‘’Can you two keep it down? There are cats trying to actually get some sleep here!’’ Said a young female voice, which was probably Sandpaw considering she was the only female apprentice.  
Graypaw laid down as well, whispering one last joke to Firepaw,  
‘’Guess I was wrong, you are not the one that sounds like Tigerclaw, Sandpaw is.’’  
Firepaw couldn’t hold it back this time. Sandpaw got very mad.

Many moons had passed, and the five apprentices had gotten much better at hunting and fighting, but were still not ready to become warriors of ThunderClan. Firepaw had now received his own mentor: Bluestar. The leader of ThunderClan decided she wanted to train the new member of her Clan herself. Why? Firepaw had no clue, but she was a good mentor. One day, little past sunhigh, Graypaw and Firepaw were having a break from training.  
‘’Hey, do you ever think about if things had been different?’’  
‘’What do you mean, Firepaw?’’  
‘’If we never met, and I never joined ThunderClan.’’  
‘’Every day. I can’t imagine you as a fat kittypet right now, though.’’  
‘’I wasn’t fat!’’  
‘’Maybe a little…’’’  
They both laughed, Firepaw smacked Graypaw’s shoulder.  
‘’But seriously, Firepaw, I can’t imagine my life without you in it.’’  
‘’Aw, that’s sweet.’’  
‘’Don’t get cocky now, I’m still a better fighter than you are.’’  
‘’Oh really? I remember last time we fought I beat you.’’  
‘’It has been a day, someone can improve in a day.’’  
‘’Sure.’’ Firepaw said, still not convinced, ‘’Maybe other cats, but not you.’’  
‘’Aaaand Why is that?’’  
‘’Because you are a piece of foxdung.’’  
‘’Wow. Is that all you got? A word, one that I taught you?’’  
‘’It is true, though.’’  
Graypaw smacked his friend back playfully.  
‘’I mean… if it had been just me, Ravenpaw, Dustpaw and Sandpaw, it would have sucked.’’  
‘’I’m sure that’s not true, I’m not that special.’’  
‘’You are to me, you are my friend!’’  
‘’Just a friend?’’  
‘’Why? You want it to be more?’’  
‘’I don’t know… I guess I’m happy now.’’  
‘’Yeah, why wouldn’t you be, you have me in your life, the great Graypaw.’’  
‘’Well, I wouldn’t say ‘great’’’  
‘’Just you wait, Fireboy. When I’m not in your life anymore you’re going to beg me to come back.’’  
‘’Just don’t leave then.’’  
‘’Of course I won’t, you wouldn’t last a second here without me, you wouldn’t even be here without me!’’  
‘’No, I wouldn’t. I’m really glad we ran into each other that day.’’  
‘’Yeah me too. Why did you call me Joey, though?’’  
‘’What do you mean?’’  
‘’The second, or third time I saw you, I can’t really remember, you called out to me. And you called me Joey.’’  
‘’Maybe I was calling someone else.’’  
‘’Nope, you were calling me.’’  
‘’You’re right.’’  
‘’So?’’  
‘’Well, I didn’t know your name and needed to call you something in my head aaaaand I guess it just popped out that day.’’  
‘’What kind of name is that even? J-o-e-y’’  
‘’It’s quite a common kittypet name.’’  
‘’It’s stupid.’’  
‘’So it fits you.’’

‘’Oh shut up.’’


End file.
